Judges would be far better directing their comments to politicians and lawmakers to try and undo the damage they have done in making it exceptionally difficult to sue Facebook or Twitter or any other social media platform. They should be the targets just as much as the various individuals named as defendants.
Internet and Defamation
One of the major problems people have when they are defamed is the fact that the defamation in very many cases ends up on the internet. If a person is defamed in a national newspaper then almost certainly there will be a digital version of that article on the internet. If they are defamed on […]
DEFAMATION
The tort, or civil wrong, of defamation is concerned with protecting an individual’s (or indeed, corporate entity’s) reputation from unjust attacks. The right to a good name is constitutionally guaranteed and, as such, the State must protect and vindicate this right. There are many ways in which an individual can be defamed. Traditionally, unjust attacks […]
Litigation, Personal Injury & Defamation
Litigation Support and Assistance A substantial part of my work involves litigation support. Litigation is the procedure whereby a series of steps are taken which ultimately will result in a contested court hearing before a judge. The first step in most litigation matters is that a demand is made and if the demand is refused […]
DEFAMATION – QUALIFIED OR ABSOLUTE PRIVILEGE
You defame somebody if you make a false allegation about them and that allegation has been made known to third parties. There are however certain defences open to the person who made the defamatory statements. One of the defences is that of privilege. Privilege can be absolute privilege, which generally refers to comments made in […]
DEFAMATION CLAIMS AND THE LIMITATION PERIOD
We have been advising a client on a defamation claim that is facing difficulties on account of the delay of the claimants in bringing the claim to litigation. It is important to be mindful of the new limitation period applied by the Defamation Act 2009 when advising on such cases. The Defamation Act, 2009 applies […]
THE MONICA LEECH CASE: DAMAGES IN DEFAMATION CASES
You will all be familiar with Monica Leech case, which is currently before the Supreme Court. This is the case where an allegation that Monica Leech was having an affair with a government minister resulted in a High Court jury awarding her €1.87 million in damages. That order is currently being appealed to the Supreme […]
DEFAMATION – ACT QUICKLY, MOVE DECISIVELY, SETTLE REASONABLY
We were recently involved in a high profile defamation action where we were able to achieve a very rapid and satisfactory settlement for journalist John Waters and others in an action against RTE. RTE have been criticised for the handling of this case and one of the criticisms has been that they settled the case […]
EVERYONE (I MEAN EVERYONE!) HAS HUMAN RIGHTS
I appeared on a panel on Tonight with Vincent Browne last night discussing the question “Are people who oppose same sex marriage equality homophobic?”. I was invited to be on the panel because I am acting for John Waters, Breda O’Brien and members of the Iona Institute in relation to comments made on the Saturday […]
HOW TO DEFAME SOMEONE AND GET AWAY WITH IT?
In recent blogs I referred to the fact that it is relatively easy these days to seriously attempt to destroy a person’s reputation and get away with it. What you do is you post some utterly untrue and scurrilous remarks on Facebook or on TripAdvisor or on Twitter and if possible you hide your identity. […]
Published and you are Damned – Defamation on Social Media
Image from Social Media: Beyond Pokes and Likes If you are defamed in the Irish Times, you will receive a healthy sum by way of compensation if your reputation has been damaged and you succeed with your claim. If you are defamed on Facebook or Twitter or TripAdvisor then it is an entirely different story. […]